Back in old times, what were alternative transportation?

Catheryn Barringer: cars were. The mainstream was horses or trollies in cities.

Queenie Ruthers: For a long time it was either horse (dog sled, camel, elephant...) or walk. Technology existed to build other things for hundreds or years, but the horse did the job so well there was no need for it. The horse did the job cheaper and easier. Not until the mid 1800s did other toys start popping up in peoples work shoppes. Alternative 1 was the horseless carriage, fueled by wood or coal fired steam, or later on by that new fangled spark ignited engine. It wasn't really serious transportation. It couldn't match the speed, reliability or power of the horse. The people that built them were seen as outsiders, eccentric. Equestrians would whip by on their horses, the cars that were coughing, sputtering, smoking, clanking along and they would shout things like "why don't you just get a horse you idiot!"Alternative 2 was the electric car. It was hampered by the same ! things that do today, range and charge time. Although the standards were lower at the time. put an electric car with today's performance back in 1875, and there would never be another gas car again, electric would have been clearly superior. But that's not how it happened.Alternative 3 was the bicycle, which started being built by hobbyists around the same time as horseless carriages. By the late 1800s, they had evolved into basically the modern form it has now. It wasn't as fast as the horse or the car, but it was certainly better then walking. You didn't have to feed it, brush it, shoe it, keep it warm, put gas in it or maintain it. It found it's own little nitch that still exists today. When the diesel engine was invented, that opened up a new alternative, vegetable oil....Show more

Jannie Ariola: Donkeys for the poor, horses for the rich and the warriors, camels for nomads, elephants for sultans. Boats for sea travelers, chariots for centurions, and i don't ! know...legs as a starting point? ;p

Madlyn Fallis: Walki! ng, walking and more walking. Horse-back riding or wagons for "carpooling". Some places they used bicycles.

Lucrecia Laurito: Well my grandad use to walk barefoot uphill both ways in the snow to get where he was going.

Lavelle Viveiros: Most people had horse/mule/ox and buggy. Alternatives were just the horse/mule/ox or your feet or perhaps a pony or dog cart. Maybe a boat or train, depending on how 'old' your 'old days' are.